Bill would give panel the power to alter sentences

MONTGOMERY -- A 21-member commission could set punishment standards for nonviolent crimes that judges generally would have to follow, under a plan that will become law unless Gov. Robert Bentley objects.

The plan's sponsor, Sen. Cam Ward, R-Alabaster, predicted the Alabama Sentencing Commission would lessen prison time for many nonviolent crimes if the plan becomes law.

He said reducing the number of nonviolent offenders who go to prison might help keep a federal judge from one day ordering a mass release of inmates to ease prison overcrowding.

"At the end of the day, the goal is still the same: keep violent offenders in prison longer," Ward said Monday. "But the only way you do that is to reduce the number of nonviolent offenders we keep sending in every year."

The plan, Senate Bill 386, won final approval from the Legislature last week.

"The governor will conduct a final review of the legislation as it passed before making any final decisions on the bill," Bentley spokesman Jeremy King said.

Under current law, the sentencing commission can suggest changes to sentences for nonviolent and violent crimes, but the Legislature must pass a law to enact the suggestions, which are not binding on judges.

That process would not change for violent crimes.

But under Ward's plan, sentencing changes for nonviolent crimes made by the commission and presented to lawmakers before each year's regular session of the Legislature would take effect on Oct. 1 following each session unless the Legislature had passed a law rejecting the changes.

Those changes would be binding on judges as "presumptive sentencing standards," with some exceptions.

Judges could impose sentences more or less severe than those called for by the punishment standards only if they publicly cited aggravating or mitigating factors defined by the commission.

Ward, who is a commission member, predicted the group would lessen prison time for many nonviolent crimes such as theft, fraud, drug dealing or drug possession.

Instead of imposing prison time on someone convicted of a nonviolent crime, Ward said revised guidelines might impose supervised probation, or require time in a community facility that would let convicts out to work during the day.

But the chairman of the sentencing commission said he didn't know what the group would do if the plan were to become law, in part because the law would add five new members. "There's no way to know," said chairman Joseph Colquitt, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law and a retired circuit judge.

State Sen. Jimmy Holley, R-Elba, was the only lawmaker to vote against Senate Bill 386. He said it would not give judges enough leeway on imposing punishments based on the specifics of a case.

"It is too broad," Holley said. "It overrides anything a jury or a judge would have otherwise known in the sentencing phase. It's just a way to clear out the jail cells."

State corrections commissioner Kim Thomas, who oversees Alabama's prisons and serves on the sentencing commission, said he supports Senate Bill 386.

If it becomes law, he predicted the commission would reduce the "great disparity" in sentences imposed by different judges for the same nonviolent crime.

Thomas also predicted the commission would recommend sentences for nonviolent offenders that would "result in a little bit less time (in prison) than the average now," or put them into community corrections programs or other options besides prisons.

If the plan becomes law, Thomas said he hoped it eventually would lead to a leveling-off of the state inmate population.

The state in January kept 25,451 inmates in state prisons, an increase of 1,357 inmates, 5.6 percent, over five years. The facilities were designed for 13,403 inmates.

Ward's plan also would expand the sentencing commission from 16 to 21 members, putting three district attorneys instead of one on the commission, for instance.

Current commission members include people chosen by Alabama's chief justice, governor and attorney general.